LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Winter weather usually causes some accidents and forces traffic to become backed-up on the highways. This winter storm did just that.
According to iDrive Arkansas, there have accidents reported all day long on Thursday.
It was mostly truck drivers out on the road weathering the storm, but fellow driver Anthony Spencer, decided to wait it out.
"A lot of people take chances. I'm not the type that takes chances. I believe that safety comes first. Always. Not the load, the safety," he said.
Spencer knows the essential role he plays as a truck driver.
"We just got to do it. We got to do it man, you got to run the country, so you just got to do what you got to do," he said.
But when icy roads come Spencer's way, he sticks to one motto.
"It's safety first. No one's gonna complain about safety first, not the D.O.T., not the FMCSA, not your broker, not the customers. It's safety first," he said.
Spencer hauls about 8,000 pounds worth of ATV's. That, combined with the mix of snow and wind is why he didn't think getting on the road was worth it.
"It's not us that we're worried about. We're professionals, we have CDL's, we know how to drive. It's the people around us that weren't taught how to drive near a truck," he said.
Some truck drivers that chose to weather the storm, drove into some scary situations Thursday.
Like one driver, who was driving along I-40, and slid off the side of the road.
"At times, drivers are going to have to need to take the right actions and they need to determine when to keep on driving or not driving. Go ahead and hold up until it's safe to drive," Mike Brust, Arkansas Trucking Association Director of Safety and Loss Prevention, said.
Knowing when to stop and when to keep going is something he said is usually up to the driver.
Some took advantage of that on Thursday for a little bit and consumers could potentially see the impact, according to Brust.
"It could have a ripple effect in the supply chain, but hopefully once the weather clears it'll smooth out again," he said.
Whether it's groceries or fuel, Brust said drivers are working as hard as they can to get what you need.
"They're doing their best, please be patient with them. This type of working, it can be stressful out there and a lot going on trying to work in this type of environment," he said.